Sometimes you have to give thanks to a little good fortune.

In danger of missing the Cup Quarterfinals for the first time in nine tournaments, the USA Men’s 7s team dropped two games on Day Two of the Hong Kong 7s, but managed to get to the top eight anyway.

After looking all business and pretty clinical against Spain in Day One, the Eagles lost two close games, to Wales and England, to finish 1-2 in pool play. Even worse, the Eagles went into the final pool game against England needing to win to go 2-1, and were horrible for the first four minutes, making errors, committing penalties, and staking England to a 21-0 lead.

The good news, however, was that Wales, which had beaten the USA 21-19 earlier on the day, had turned around and lost to Spain 26-10 in the final game of their pool play. That left Wales and Spain at 1-2, and with the USA in a much better points difference position, losing against England wasn’t the end of the world.

Wales 21 USA 19

The USA team started horribly. Carlin Isles, who has been so smart with the ball of late, decided to weave back and forth in front of his own tryline, and, when tackled, made a poor pass that fell right into Welsh hands. A gift 7-0 lead for Wales. 

Isles redeemed himself a couple of minutes later with a classic long-range try. He did well to stay onside to take Martin Iosefo’s pass, and he was gone. 

Wales got another in the corner despite a lunging tackle from Iosefo that appeared to knock Luke Treharne into touch.

Some smart team play with Matai Leuta and Kevon Williams making key plays set up Isles for his second. 

Everything now seemed in control and when Isles took a pass from Brett Thompson and was in, the USA led 19-14.

But they couldn’t hold it. 

Little mistakes started to creep in, and the Eagles didn’t get the calls. When Afon Bagshaw blindsided Stephen Tomasin after the whistle, rolled him over, and started punching him, and should have received a red card, he received no card at all. That was an egregious non-call.

Even so, the Eagles could have closed out the game, and Iosefo appeared to have done so, taking a gap at midfield and charging to the corner. But a brilliant cover tackle from Joe Goodchild knocked the ball loose before Iosefo could touch it down.

That saved the game for Wales, and it was, of course, Goodchild who took a pass from Reuben Morgan-Williams and beat Hughes to score the game-tying try. Treharne converted to win it.

A Loss, But All Is Not Lost

In that England game, the Eagles failed to control the initial restart and England pressure produced a try. A superb pop kick and chase by Dan Norton, and a bad turnover made it 21-0.

But a long, winding run by Tomasin finally got the Eagles on the front foot. Ben Pinkelman finished it off, and with time up in the first half, Madison Hughes raced around the outside, failed to see Isles with him, but the USA was able to send it wide to Pinkelman who broke a tackle and scored.

Poised to take this game, the Eagles went back to their bread and butter of just working the phases and looking for gap for anyone. It came when Folau Niua slipped into a gap and lofted a pass wide to Pinkelman, who dealt with two tacklers as he stretched over for his third.

That made it 21-17 England, and the cost of that poor start started to become clear. The go-ahead try seemed to be right there after a nasty run from Brett Thompson, but Hughes couldn’t handle the switch pass from Kevon Williams. 

England went right back on attack, Marcus Tupuola made an excellent cover tackle to stop a try, but he was yellow carded for not releasing the tackled player, and England was in at the corner.

That made it 28-17, and at that point, with a minute left and a man in the bin, the USA probably knew they wouldn’t win this game. Tupuola got back on the field in time to take a nice pass from Maceo Brown and score in the corner, and that was a nice reward for the players who don’t normally start, but that finished it 28-22.

"We just came out flat and not really with it," said Hughes. "When you do that you’re going to get punished ... We’ve just got to have hard look at ourselves and pick it up tomorrow."

Still A Job To Do

So the Eagles have Spain to thank for still being in the top eight, and for still being in position to retain 1st in the World Series and that coveted top four spot.

All of the teams in contention for the Olympic qualifier places (top four) are in the Cup Quarterfinals. One of those, South Africa, plays the USA on Sunday. 

Fiji takes on Argentina, Englands plays Samoa, and New Zealand faces France. With mistakes behind them, it’s a new day for the USA team, and all season they have done an excellent job putting everything into that crucial quarterfinal game. They need to now.